Enthusiastic Rivers carries Chargers in clutch

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – He was sheepish, to be sure, but non-apologetic. After the game he'd had, and after what he'd just done, Philip Rivers had earned his moment of temporary insanity.

Rivers' pass of 10 yards had barely cleared the fingertips of wide receiver Vincent Jackson – whose touchdown catch gave the Chargers a 22-21 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs that stood over the game's last 36 seconds – when the quarterback turned and made a mad dash back upfield. Fists thrusting upward, legs churning to beat the Chiefs band, Rivers veered at midfield and hit the Chargers sideline at full speed.

“That,” Rivers said of his broken-field celebration, “was about as authentic of a spaz-out as I've ever had.”

He disappeared into a crowd of cheering Chargers near the bench, but realized that his work wasn't done, grabbed his helmet and sprinted back toward the huddle for a two-point conversion that failed. No matter, as it turned out.

In the happy aftermath of a freezing afternoon that for so long seemed certain to be a miserable finish to a miserable season for the Chargers, Rivers was playfully asked if that's as far as he's ever had to run on a football field.

“Except when I was chasing the guy on the interception,” Rivers said with a sardonic smile. “I was running about as hard on both.”

Indeed, had he not been so clutch down the stretch of such an important game, the result and folks back home certainly would have been especially hard on Rivers. Despite the fact that he'd missed on only one of 11 first-half passes, Rivers was getting roughed up in more ways than one before all the late excitement.

That 50-yard interception return to which he referred? Rivers threw the ball right to lurking cornerback Patrick Surtain, then personally had to chase him at an angle to knock Surtain out of bounds at the 3-yard line, though the Chiefs scored on the next play for a 21-3 lead. Sacked three times, Rivers fumbled twice when hit, losing one of them to Kansas City.

By game's end, though, Rivers had completed 34-of-48 passes for 346 yards. Even as quarterback of a 6-8 team, Rivers continues to lead the NFL in passer rating at 101.4. With two games left, he can become just the second Chargers quarterback to finish above 100.0 with at least 100 pass attempts, the only other being predecessor Drew Brees (104.8) in 2004.

Sunday was his fifth 300-yard game of the season. To find a Chargers quarterback with more in any single season, you have to go back to Dan Fouts in 1985, the year he had seven such outings.

“I know the record doesn't say a whole lot,” Rivers said. “We've been on the short end of the stick in a lot of these games. To win one – especially the way the defense battled, especially the way special teams came up big – to find a way to win offensively was huge.”

The way was through the air. Still down 21-10 with less than five minutes to play and the ball at his own 11, Rivers began dispensing passes to LaDainian Tomlinson (two), Malcom Floyd (four), Jackson (one) and Darren Sproles (three) before culminating an 89-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Floyd.

Given the ball right back via onside-kick recovery by Kassim Osgood, Rivers immediately went deep to Jackson, tossing a ball with some serious hang time that was caught for 42 yards.

“The thing was up there for a while, swirling in the wind,” Jackson said. “I just tried to track it in and hope it got to me before the safety did.”

Set up on the Chiefs 19-yard line, Rivers threw an incompletion, then took upon himself to run for 9 yards to the 10 on second down. With the clock down to 40 seconds, it was time for a play-action pass the Chargers had been practicing for just such cat-and-mouse occasions in the red zone.

“We just didn't get down there much to use it,” Rivers said. “To have it come up on third-and-short was perfect, with just enough time for them to think maybe they'll run it and try to get a first down, so it kinda married up perfect with the situation. Vincent sold it, the offensive line sold it and we made the play.”

That offensive line that suckered the Chiefs into coming up for the run, leaving Jackson free for the TD pass, was working without injured center Nick Hardwick and ejected guard Kris Dielman. Jeremy Newberry took over as snapper, Scott Mruczkowski as left guard, and Rivers was barely touched by Kansas City hands down the stretch.

“We never stopped believing,” left tackle Marcus McNeill said. “I think K.C. wrote us out. They felt like they had the game when the clock was getting low in the fourth quarter. We knew we were going to score that last one. That was just our mentality.”